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I went to the Kodokan for Judo practice tonight. In order to move up to the next level of class, I have to go 13 times in the first month. This is the second week and I have only gone 3 times now so I will have to make up for it later in the month if I want to go to the next level next month. As you can see, Judo is a pretty big commitment. Considering that there is no class on Sundays and February only has 28 days, 13 times this month means going to the Kodokan for practice more often than every other day!

In any case, my body doesn’t feel as sore after practice this time but that might be because the work we did in class today involved work with the legs and sweeping and didn’t involve as much somersaulting or falling to the mat like last time. I’ll have to see if I am sore tomorrow or not. I was thinking about going to Judo again tomorrow but I realize now that tomorrow is actually a national holiday so I don’t think the Kodokan will be open.

According to Wikipedia’s page on Public Holidays in Japan, tomorrow is “National Foundation Day” (建国記念の日). Wikipedia says about this day: “This national holiday was established in 1966 (and first held in 1967) as a day to reflect on the establishment of the nation and to nourish a love for the country. From 1872 to 1948, February 11 was known as Kigen-setsu (紀元節^?), a holiday commemorating the day on which—according to the Nihon-shoki—Emperor Jimmu is said to have acceded the throne in 660 BCE.”

So, it looks like this is a holiday originally from just before and during Japan’s imperial times that was converted into the more democratic “National Foundation Day”.

Today I was looking through my work records from last year and realized that I didn’t start working until May. I worked hard for about 2 months and then coasted for the rest of the time (or at least, I may have worked hard but did not make much financial progress after those first 2 months).

So, the way I see it, this year I am starting work almost 2 1/2 months early. Also, this year, compared to last, I have a lot more experience, a lot more contacts, a lot more knowledge and a lot of sites left over from last year so I am looking forward to getting back to work and making some money.

One thing I forgot to mention regarding Judo is that you can get your name (or whatever you want) embroidered on your gi (uniform) or belt. So, I got my last name in Japanese characters (クンズ) embroidered on the left side of my belt in black and I got the Japanese word for “profit” or “profitable” (利益) on the right side of my belt in red. The reason I have 利益 (rieki) is because I want to become profitable and also make profit in my work. I originally got these characters on my business cards that I made when I went to an internet marketing seminar (by Eben Pagan) last summer. So, when I found out I could put another word on my belt besides my name, I went for these characters. I chose red because red is my favorite color although on further reflection, perhaps I should have chosen black or green for the characters since red is usually associated with loss in business. I don’t suppose it matters that much and besides, it looks very nice in red.

I woke up somewhat early today and tomorrow I intend to wake up earlier so I should prepare for sleep now. Hopefully I can get some good work done tomorrow early, as well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.